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Benefit-transfer valuation of a cultural heritage site: the Petroglyph National Monument

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 October 2009

CARLOS A. ULIBARRI
Affiliation:
Department of Management, New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology, 801 Leroy Place, Socorro, NM 87801, USA. Email: [email protected]
VICTOR C. ULIBARRI
Affiliation:
Department of Management, New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology, NM, USA.

Abstract

This paper applies a household production framework (Becker, 1971) to infer the economic value of a cultural heritage site, namely, the Petroglyph National Monument, situated in Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA. The empirical analysis uses benefit-transfer techniques from three source studies: those of Bergstrom and Cordell (1991) and Boxall et al. (2003), which concern willingness-to-pay to hike and view rock art sites; and those of Rolfe and Windle (2003, 2006), which concern willingness-to-pay by Aboriginal and general populations to preserve a cultural heritage site containing rock art. The benefit-transfer analysis estimates recreational values between 3.75 million and 7 million dollars per year (depending on perceptions of the cultural attribute quality) and a nonuse value of approximately 12.5 million dollars per year. By comparison the annualized costs of developing/operating the study site are 8.5 million dollars per year. Thus a partial cost-benefit analysis suggests the study site yields net economic benefits upwards of 7.8 million dollars per year.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2009

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